The dry moat circling the Tower of London has a new lease of life. Once a real water defence, later a Victorian lawn, the 13th-century moat was transformed into a vast flower-filled bowl for the Platinum Jubilee in 2022, and the plan was always for something more permanent. The historic moat has since been restored as a year-round natural landscape, with millions of seeds and bulbs planted across its sloping banks to create a changing seasonal display in the heart of the city.
The project, run by the conservation charity Historic Royal Palaces, involved digging into centuries of compacted earth and sowing dozens of species, from cornflowers and poppies to cosmos and tickseed. The aim is not just prettiness. The new planting cools and insulates the surrounding walls, supports bees, butterflies and other pollinators, and gives the moat a genuinely ecological role after decades as little more than a empty grass ditch.
Visitors don't just see it from above. A path winds down into the moat itself, so you can walk among the flowers with the Tower's famous White Tower looming overhead — a viewpoint few people have ever had. Timed tickets for the moat experience are bought separately or alongside a standard Tower admission, and access is via the walkways that ramp down from Tower Wharf. The display shifts through the seasons, so a June visit looks very different from an autumn one, with grasses and later-flowering species taking over as summer blooms fade.
It's a rare example of a major heritage site rewinding centuries of landscaping. The moat was flooded by the Thames until the 1840s, when the Duke of Wellington had it drained and dried out amid concerns about disease and the stagnant water. Since then it has served as a lawn, a grazing space and, briefly, a canvas for a sea of ceramic poppies in 2014 commemorating the First World War centenary. The flower restoration is arguably its most dramatic reinvention yet — and it makes an already unmissable London landmark worth a fresh visit, even if you've ticked it off before.
For travellers, the practical upside is clear: you can pair a classic sightseeing stop with something new, family-friendly and genuinely photogenic, all within a few minutes' walk of Tower Bridge and the riverside path. Combine it with the Crown Jewels, the Yeoman Warder tours and a stroll along the Thames, and you have a full day in one compact corner of the city.
This piece was prepared from reporting by Secret London.
